Chaos and Determinism: Turbulence as a Paradigm for Complex Systems Converging Toward Final States

In Chaos and Determinism, members of the French Academy from several disciplines ― including fluid mechanics, economics, philosophy, theoretcial physics and biology ― offer scientific and philosophical analyses of the concepts of order, chaos, and determinism as they emerge in such complex systems as atmosphere, oceans, monetary economic,s and biological organisms. Using turbulence in fluid mechanics as the chief model, the authors describe and explain the behavior of systems that tend toward a particular end-state, such as an attractor in dynamic systems. The result is a unique interdisciplinary study of complex behavior and its philosophical consequences in fluid mechanics, meteorology, oceanography, physics, embryology, genetics, and economics.